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They Told Us To Move: Dakota—Cassia

Ng Kok Hoe (Editor),

The Cassia Resettlement Team (Editor)

4.33 · Rating details · 102 ratings · 13 reviews

What happens when an entire community is moved?

Dakota Crescent was one of Singapore's oldest public housing estates and a rental flat neighbourhood for low-income households. In 2016, its residents—many of whom are elderly—were relocated to Cassia Crescent to make way for redevelopment. To help them resettle, a group of volunteers came together and formed the Cassia Reset ...more

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Paperback, 1, 268 pages

Published 2019 by Ethos Books

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· 102 ratings · 13 reviews

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Jun 11, 2019 ash | spaceyreads rated it it was amazing

Shelves: non-fiction, singapore-nonfiction

The Cassia Resettlement Team has done amazing work - from befriending the residents of Dakota to ensure their individual needs are met to research and advocacy for the inclusion of persons excluded from the system. They did it quietly, but proudly. They had a strong ethos and believed in their work. And that shows from the book, put together with purpose and care, making sure the Dakota-Cassia relocation is documented down. And when you document something, people can continue to know and underst The Cassia Resettlement Team has done amazing work - from befriending the residents of Dakota to ensure their individual needs are met to research and advocacy for the inclusion of persons excluded from the system. They did it quietly, but proudly. They had a strong ethos and believed in their work. And that shows from the book, put together with purpose and care, making sure the Dakota-Cassia relocation is documented down. And when you document something, people can continue to know and understand and work on it long after it has passed.

I found that the structure of the book really facilitates learning and understanding social issues from many different angles. Eight residents and the head of the Senior Activity Centre at the Dakota area were interviewed, and for each interview, a volunteer and an academic would comment on a key issue presented, write about their experience with the resident, or about their experience with the relocation in general.

I know this has been done by another reviewer, but I feel that these two paragraphs will summarise anything that I can ever say about this book best.

This heartfelt comment was written as a conclusion to the book and project by Rocky Howe, head of research and advocacy at the Cassia Resettlement Team. The Cassia Resettlement Team has done amazing work - from befriending the residents of Dakota to ensure their individual needs are met to research and advocacy for the inclusion of persons excluded from the system. They did it quietly, but proudly. They had a strong ethos and believed in their work. And that shows from the book, put together with purpose and care, making sure the Dakota-Cassia relocation is documented down. And when you document something, people can continue to know and understand and work on it long after it has passed.

"The commentators of this book, in their responses to these inequalities, have emphatically argued that the measure of our society’s progress should be how we treat our most vulnerable. The call to shift society’s most vulnerable back from the neglected periphery into the centre of attention is underpinned by a strong moral demand for the social and political inclusion of the marginalised. The call for inclusion as a demand for justice is a challenging but transformative call. More than simply extending already existing institutions and distributing benefits to those who do not yet have them, inclusiveness is about changing the terms of public discussion and the political process to be attentive to differences and disadvantages that arise from our relative social and economic positions.

"This attentiveness to how relative advantages and disadvantages shape unequal outcomes, to how we stand in relation to one another, makes possible two features of a just society. First, it does not pretend that society has been impartial towards all its constituents. It does not cordon off features of who we are and what circumstances we face in life—based on our race, gender, or availability of family—and claim that they are irrelevant to how society is organised. Secondly, by including our voices in a shared public sphere, we become more capable of exercising moral responsibility to onr another. These will allow us to live in a society where each of our own demands for justice will be seen and heard, and give us assurance that our home will nourish who we are and what we want to be." ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Horatio rated it liked it

Written in the style of interviews followed by reflection pieces of the volunteers who were a part of the team which worked with the residents. A lot of repeated themes, and gave me a greater understanding of the situations which these residents face living in rental units, but was not as enlightening as This is What Inequality Looks Like nor did it feel as well-written.

Favourite Quotes:

"Tong, it seems, had internalised a narrative far too common in a society that glorifies self-reliance and in ...more

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Feb 11, 2021 Charis rated it liked it

This is a compilation of interviews, ethnographic insights, and sociology essays reflecting on key phrases and themes captured by the interview data. It’s a decent book that explores the disruption and transition process that Dakota residents (often elderly and definitely low-wage) had to endure when forced by the authorities to relocate. Texts like these are important to help us gain perspective on life in singapore beyond our immediate social group, which is often warped and makes us take our ...more

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Sep 11, 2019 Francesco rated it it was amazing

Shelves: singapore

This is an important book of my colleague Ng Kok Hoe at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore, which aims to shed light on one side of the Singapore's public housing experience that is often unmentioned. It does so telling the stories of hardship of those people who had the greatest challenges in adapting to the public housing policies. It is important to recognize these voices, first because ignoring them is adding more hardship to these people's lives. Seco ...more

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Jun 28, 2020 Kirat Kaur rated it liked it

These days there’s so much emphasis placed on the ever-changing face of Singapore and its ever-moving classes, so this book is a necessary reminder that even in this city that’s perpetually moving, there are people rooted to a sense of place and time who cannot be ignored or forgotten. It felt like a privilege to hear from residents of Dakota Crescent themselves what the place meant to them and how they felt about their relocation. There was also a lot of valuable context about the evolution of ...more

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Jul 31, 2020 Quan Sheng rated it it was amazing

"The true measure of any society can be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members."

In Singapore, decades of strong economic growth have resulted in a rapid rise in living standards for the vast majority of its citizens - a burgeoning middle class, high levels of educational attainment and literacy, and occupational stability in the form of homeownership. But what about those left behind?

Through the lens of personal realities; the stories of the elderly poor and low-income rental flat r ...more

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May 06, 2019 Ly rated it really liked it

Shelves: urban, drive-me-to-think

It's unfair to say if I like or dislike this book. I think it doesn't intend to be liked or love, it perhaps intends to teach interested but still unaware readers like myself.

I learnt a lot! Highly recommended!

My favourite quote:
“An economy of gratitude can generate an oppression of goodwill. Channelling resources into things and programmes which do not address current unmet needs is not only wasteful, but also oppressive” (Ad Maulod, 112) ...more

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Apr 16, 2019 Yuhan rated it really liked it

Shelves: history-and-politics

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

P249
The commentators of this book, in their responses to these inequalities, have emphatically argued that the measure of our society’s progress should be how we treat our most vulnerable. The call to shift society’s most vulnerable back from the neglected periphery into the centre of attention is underpinned by a strong moral demand for the social and political inclusion of the marginalised. The call for inclusion as a demand for justice is a challenging but transformative call. More than simpl ...more

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Jul 14, 2021 Sean rated it really liked it

This book was a difficult read. The conversations in this book can be uncomfortable and jarring; yet, it is also a beautiful sociological analysis of identifying the general from the particular or as Teo You Yenn says "seeing a story to get to a case".

Each chapter of the book is arranged in a similar structure: an interview with a resident in Dakota, a reflection by a social worker and an analysis by an academic.

The interviews with the residents are significant as they give a personal recount o ...more

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Jun 05, 2021 Jean rated it it was amazing

There's something magical about how rooted humans are to their surroundings and environment, and these interviews and analysis captured this somewhat amorphous bittersweetness so well. It stirred up nostalgic feelings of my own experiences with neighbouring flats en-blocing, and gentle reflections about what I'd like to preserve in my own surroundings. There's obviously a more historical and analytical element to the interviews for those looking for it, but I think the beauty of this book lies i ...more

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Feb 01, 2021 Md Ashik rated it it was amazing

A riveting and engaging collection of multiple voices. Prof Ng takes curious readers to the very physical community as they listen to the unique stories by many who call the place a home. Through the heartfelt sharings, the book probes the readers to rethink a citizen-centric policy design and sensible engagement of residents - a blatant contrast to the cold and ordered displacement - in relocating persons from their homes to their new houses.

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